A lament for Richmond (& how the club broke my heart)

A dead man cannot win a game of football. A dead man cannot save a club.

A Collingwood fan told of the news. On Twitter, @jimmythedragon sent a message: thinking of you tonight. If ever the Tiger needs to burn bright, it’s tonight. We shared the great man with you. #respect

Late last Monday night I was alone and driving through the stilled city and thinking of Tom Hafey, of the person I imagined him to be, and thinking of church bells on Richmond Hill and flags at half mast, and thinking how this city already seemed lonelier. Tommy had died. An era was over.

I thought also how his death might galvanise a club. It might be the catalyst for a club to find something within itself – a resolve and fortitude – that’s been absent all season, and for too many years. I thought his death might mean something. It could be a turning point.

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Three weeks ago, after the Hawthorn loss, I wrote about trust. “Trust and belief seem to have broken at our club, so quickly and readily after the dream of last season. Trust between players. Trust between coaches. Trust between fans. Trust within the club. Trust in football. Trust in something we hold dear.”

Saturday’s defeat left Richmond supporters raw with loss and disillusionment. Ideas of trust and belief, loyalty and patriotism, were questioned among fans. Most called for changes. Some called for heads to roll. Many called for unity, to stand firm behind the club and its chosen path.

What’s gone unsaid is that trust begins at the top. When Caroline Wilson confirmed Richmond boss Brendon Gale gave an hour-long presentation for Andrew Demetriou’s vacant position, this trust was loosened. My disappointments aren’t about Brendon, but for Richmond fans with blind faith and loyalty to him, who stand unquestioningly behind him.

Brendon Gale was a courageous Richmond player, and is recognised as a successful and popular CEO of the club, and I believe him to be a fair-minded and astute manager, and I would not deny him his private ambitions. But what does his pitch for the top AFL job say about his duty to Richmond? For us outsiders, it can be read only as duplicity.

He is Richmond, until a better offer presents. Rightly or wrongly, it is a signal that percolates down. And in a time of crisis, his wavering of trust resonates beyond its circumstances. If his heart is tempted by another offer, why should ours remain true?

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Left: Glory days: The Pickering brothers (Michael and Justin), on stage with Dale Weightman and former Jack Titus medal recipients Trent Nichols, Craig Smith and Michael Mitchell, with MC Jon Ralph, at the Tommy Hafey Club lunch.Center: On the couch: The three playing recipients of the Jack Titus medal (who’ve not won the Jack Dyer medal) – Nathan Foley, Dustin Martin and Chris Newman.Right: Tigers of old: Mike Perry, Richmond’s 1967 Premiership centre-half-backman standing before the ready smile of his coach, at the recent Tommy Hafey Club lunch at Punt Road.

The sky was crying.

Three weeks ago, on a Friday, I knotted a tie and caught a train to Richmond and with a broken umbrella walked to Punt Road for a luncheon held by the Tommy Hafey Club. Along the way I met a man getting wet and shared with him my brolly. We introduced ourselves. His name was Gary Arnold, and he once played for Richmond. Thirteen games in the 1963-64 seasons. Five wins, seven goals.

He played in the second-last VFL match ever held at Punt Road Oval.

The day before the lunch, news was that Tommy Hafey was back in hospital after complications following surgery to remove a brain tumour in early March.

“Tommy’s not too flash,” said the straight-talking Mike Perry (53 games in the yellow-and-black, including the 1967 Grand Final coached by Hafey, and now president of the Richmond Former Players’ and Officials’ Association). He said he had visited Tommy in hospital and his message was simple. “Make sure we all get behind the players, the coach and the club.”

I was invited to Richmond’s business network club by Sonya, a committee member, a passionate Richmond woman, and someone keen to contribute to the betterment of our club. Sitting beside her, at a table with her friends, it’s inspiring to see how an organisation can bring people together, and help look out for its own.

As she said in an email this week: “When the Committee gets together again (next function is July 11), I’ll be motivated to make the Tommy Hafey Club grow and fly now that he’s gone – uphold Tommy’s values and support the past players and history of the club. All I can do.”

For anyone Richmond, it was a wonderful luncheon. The day’s theme was Jack Titus and his eponymous medal as the club’s best-and-fairest runner-up. Football journalist Jon Ralph was MC, and guests included current players Chris Newman, Dustin Martin (“Got some more skulls tattooed on my arms”, “I just love being out there with the boys”), and Colac-boy Nathan Foley.

Sandy Bay recruit Trent Nichols, who played at four league clubs and was traded from Tigerland to West Coast (“We were so well-funded over there the players used to call it Hollywood”), had only fond memories of his Punt Road days. “I think without a doubt this place is unbelievable,” he said. “This place would just rock.”

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Rightly or wrongly, in times like this, our football club is all about the “four walls”. Those on the inside create a siege mentality. It keeps barrackers at arm’s reach. It separates those within the club from disparate outside voices. It constructs a dichotomy; “us” versus “them”.

Last year I wrote a weekly blog about what it means to be a Richmond supporter that for much of the season was published on the club’s website. It was a wonderful opportunity that gave much pleasure, mostly from fans who shared their stories that in turn I shared with others. It was an exercise in community. It was about building trust. I was open and honest in who I was and what I was trying to do. Most of all, I wanted to help and contribute to something that for so long has given me so much pleasure.

But the exercise ultimately was soured by disappointments, all which came from my dealings with “the club” and in particular with Simon Matthews, its general manager of media and stakeholder relations. Maybe I’ve lived a charmed life, but rarely before have I encountered someone so brusque and overbearing. At every turn, he put my nose out of joint.

Matthews is a football bureaucrat. He’s part of an industry gotten fat from corporate dollars. He faces none of the intense public scrutiny borne by players and coaches. He came to Punt Road from Essendon. His brother is GM of the GWS Giants. He’s part of the boys club culture that David Koch, chairman of Port Adelaide Football Club, remarked upon after his first season in the AFL system.

Simon Matthews is well-renumerated for his work at the Richmond Football Club. My contributions were voluntary.

Of all the missteps between us, two stand out. One came after I introduced myself to a players’ partner at a game, and asked whether I could sit beside her at a game and write about it from her perspective. She seemed receptive to the idea. She gave me her business card. I said I’d be in contact.

Two days later, on a Monday morning, I received a terse phone call from Matthews, admonishing me for approaching this woman and accusing me of putting her in an uncomfortable and awkward position. He said she had felt “ambushed”. He said if ever I wanted access to anyone at the club I need put it in writing.

This partner was not a club employee and, anyway, all previous emailed requests for club access (say, for contact details of long-serving members, or for past players) were routinely ignored.

Regardless, I wrote a 609-word request asking for access. The reply was five words: “XXXX is unavailable for interview”.

I was happy to let the matter rest – our second child was imminent – although out of courtesy I emailed this players’ partner apologising if I’d caused her any distress, and assuring her it wasn’t my intention.

Her reply was immediate: “I want to apologise for what the RFC has said to you. As I never once said that I did not want to be interviewed by you, they said it would be best if I did not. I am quite annoyed that they have tried to put this on me as I never said that you put me in an uncomfortable or awkward position. As I said to you I would have been more than happy to do it for you aslong as it was OK with [XXXX]. So please know that none of this has come from me.”

Months later I asked Simon Matthews why he lied to me. I said there was no need. If the club didn’t want me sitting at a game with one of the so-called WAG’s then all it had to do was say so. He didn’t need to berate me. All I was trying to do was be inclusive, to spread goodwill.

Then several weeks later, returning from Sydney and the game at the SCG, I knew I could no longer offer my services to the club. It was all prompted by a whiteboard.

In a video episode of ‘Inside Tigerland’, Matthew Richardson was filmed in an office with a whiteboard on a wall behind him. The board charted the weekly routine of the club’s website. On Fridays, under “Dimma’s presser” was written “Dugald’s flog”. I learned last season the word ‘flog’ was a derogatory term, much used in football. One letter – blog becoming flog – caused much hurt.

All last season, I spent many hours and days – and my own resources – compiling unpaid words about the players and supporters of our club. I was trying to create something that would enhance its social capital. I wanted to try and help the club in the best way I knew how. And yet within the club’s “four walls”, among the security of its paid employees, here is what they really thought.

It was tactless and unfair, but also revelatory.

I told a friend – a tiler by trade, a Hawthorn member – and his immediate response was if the club thought this about me, imagine what they privately thought about those in the cheer squad, or other passionate fans. It was disrespectful to me, but more pointedly, it was disrespectful to all fans I had written about; all who were willing to share their Richmond stories.

I write this as a salutary warning; for the club, and to any who might also knock on its door, wanting to contribute. A fish rots from the head. I could never again be a member of a club that condones this sort of message; that’s not open and truthful, kind-hearted to its own.

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We could be heroes: An image of Richmond before many of us were born – coach Tom Hafey chaired on the shoulders of others, on the MCG, after winning the 1969 Grand Final.

In a week of Tommy Hafey eulogies, and our public humiliation before a swollen crowd at the MCG, all eyes were on Richmond. This was to be our week of celebration, and recognition of honest and hardworking values that once made our club from a hard-luck suburb an organisation to be feared and admired. We were proud to be Richmond. Our associations with the club meant something.

Tributes penned by Greg Baum place his legacy beautifully into the tapestry of this city. On Saturday, in a single sentence, he recalled a story that’s the pith of why so many of us have loved football types like Hafey. “Bob Rose once told of arriving at Victoria Park during the reserves match on his first day down from Nyah West, seeing the terraces packed with people despite the soaking rain, and thinking that he would always owe it to them to be dedicated.”

In Sunday’s paper, Tim Lane quoted from Elliot Cartledge’s ‘The Hafey Years’, recounting an era that “..echoes parts of a long-gone Melbourne, whereby champion sportsmen owned milk bars or pubs or worked nine-to-five in offices or in a trade. The city lived for football and stopped for football.
“And with four flags in eight seasons, soaring crowds, headline after headline and a host of football names, the Tigers – for a moment in time – ruled the land.”

Of Richmond’s on-field loss on Saturday, Sean Ross’s weekly blog is a must-read. Here is the voice of the exasperated fan. His is the visceral emotion, the silent betrayal, all of us felt on Saturday night. It is also a personal expose on an emptiness a generation of Richmond fans must feel. For those of Ross’s age, there have been no golden years at Richmond, no grand finals, no true champions, no lingering success. For his generation, the story of Richmond is a story mostly in failure.

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First memories often are the truest, and my first awareness of Tommy Hafey was in the late 1970s as Collingwood coach; a stoic figure of manliness, all torso, in his tight t-shirt with its trio of shoulder stripes in the chill of the three-quarter time huddle, among players in black and white dressing gowns emblazoned with the word ‘YAKKA’. To a boy, he seemed an embodiment of strength and masculinity. He looked a leader of men; a hero.

Thinking about Tom Hafey now, he was a footballing identity in our city who for many was a household name, and probably will be for years to come. His death was front page news. Jack Dyer, Lou Richards, Bob Davis, Tom Hafey, Ron Barassai – time will one day catch them all, these footballing men who have inspired so many others with their feats, with their examples of how life could be lived.

Unlike Sean Ross’s generation of Richmond fans, I have the 1980 premiership and 1982 grand final to cherish. I attended both games, not yet a teenager, with hand-made floggers and a boyish enthusiasm for my club and its team. I have Francis Bourke, Jim Jess, Kevin Bartlett and Michael Roach to remember.

A generation before mine has the glory days – the Hafey years – that cast still a distant shadow. After so many years of mediocrity, four premierships came, and a lineage that saw 20 of his former players go on to become coaches, three of whom won premierships elsewhere.

The aura of Hafey is in the numbers. For all in the crowd at last year’s elimination final, think about this. In 1977, after Hafey switched from Richmond to Collingwood after learning of disloyalty in the Punt Road boardroom, the Round 4 game between these two clubs drew a crowd of 91,936. They came for the love and respect of Hafey. Collingwood won by 26 points, and from a wooden spoon would play in a drawn grand final. No wonder his players were ‘Hafey’s heroes’.

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On a Friday night last year, in round two, sitting alongside Troy Chaplin’s parents, I unwittingly found myself seated in front of Beverley March, wife of then club president, Gary. She was generous company – good natured – and introduced me to her companions for the night. One was Brendan Gale’s wife, the other was Maureen Hafey. I was struck by an abiding sense of respect. When introduced to Maureen, my immediate response was to comment that I was seated before Melbourne royalty.

In a society that at least pretends to be egalitarian, to offer a fair go to all, Tom and Maureen seemed the sort of people who rightly could be put on a pedestal. Not that they’d want to be. In days before the corporatisation of football, before television turned it into a mass entertainment and flooded it with money – before all the middle-men and their vested interests – there were people like

Hafey on modest wages with modest expectations who were servants to the game. They acted with dignity. They respected their standing in society. They had no need for aggrandisement.

On that Friday night last year, I did what any civil person does. I introduced my two companions for the night – Gary and Kathy Chaplin – to the three women sitting behind me. It struck me as odd. The parents of the club’s star new recruit from Port Adelaide had never met the wives of the club’s CEO and president. A divide stood between them.

Looking about the section reserved for the WAG’s and the players’ parents, there seemed no unity of companionship. No shared sense of purpose, like you might get among parents on the sideline of a junior football game.

Maybe I am overly social among strangers. My thought at the time was that a strong club and a happy club would engender a strong sense of belonging among this group. There would be camaraderie. There would be inclusion. If a player and his immediate social circle are happy off the field, they’re more likely to be happier on the field.

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Football is a brutal business. All the goodwill created by the club last season is now a distant memory. Fans feel disillusioned, cheated. Talk this week by some of the players and the club hierarchy of still playing finals football feels only like an insult to our intelligence. It feels like denial. We knew after the Footscray game, something was wrong. Heavy losses to Collingwood and Hawthorn did nothing to change this perception.

Our coach after last weeks’ game looked like a man on the edge of a breakdown. Never before have I seen him look so despondent. He looked like someone who had come to realise that something he had built and believed in – something he had trusted – was no longer true.

I only hope Dimma can work through it. I worry his insular viewpoint – the “four walls” – cannot help him in a time of crisis. I wonder how he can find it within himself to turn this around.

I think this week about loyalty and patriotism, and dissenting views, and frank criticism, and think each of us need find our own path through this collective disappointment. I think of Sonya and the role she plays in the Tommy Hafey Club, and her resolve to double her efforts to try and make the club the best place she can. I think also of 24-year-old Sean Nestor, from near Berwick, who sent me a heartfelt letter he wrote (I will publish it next week) about the despair he feels about his club. I think of all the Richmond fans I’ve met this past 18 months, and wonder how they’ve responded to this adversity.

I think all I can do is show my colours.

I will go to the next open training session in Punt Road, to show the players I care. And this Saturday morning I’ll catch a bus from Canberra to the GWS game with the Capital Tigers, to report on a supporter group who show they care.

It is all I can do. It’s a thing about Richmond; it gets into your marrow.

Comments

That’s a pretty disturbing story about being taken for granted and mocked. The sort of thing you might shrug off in the good times, but at a time like this, it seems very revelatory. I was going to write “good on you stick with it” but what choice have you got? We have no choice.

Unlike players, coaches and admin, there is no free agency for fans. At least after the age of 7 – that’s the ad hoc rule I made for Marcus when he was 5. Make up your mind and stick with it. I put all sorts of advisory labels on Richmond to warn him off, but he ignored them. At least I’ve got a little mate to go through the coming barren years with.

As I know no more than what I have read, I am loathe to comment on what might indicate yet more unravelling of team spirit at Richmond but I did find it interesting what you wrote about one S. Matthews. Yours was not the sort of experience that builds hope for the future of the club, the players and the supporters.

One thing the club has to remember – and it should be tattooed on the inside of their eyelids so that they read the message each time they close their eyes to the clamouring fans – is that it is the supporters who maketh the club. No supporters means no memberships, no gate receipts and, eventually, no club.

Nobody is more distressed about this year’s form, particularly the last game, than me. I try not to show it to those around me, such as my wife, my cat, my dog, my close friends, but I am aching with a hurt beyond words.

But, hey, we couldn’t even win that game back in August 2003 which was supposed to be in memory of the great Jack Dyer, so why should we have expected any other result last Saturday? Makes a mockery of the words from THAT song: “We’ll fight and fight and win”. No, there is something wrong and it has been wrong for a longer time than what Dimma has been at the club.

James, thanks for your comments, and your passion is infectious. I am glad your cat and dog, and your wife, have not suffered from your mood swings prompted by our football team. Already, I am looking at weekend jobs around the house I can accomplish this winter. Sometimes it is easier to listen to the football on the radio, and imagine what is happening.

I have tried opening the link you sent me to the words you wrote about Tommy, and have tried looking for them on Yellow & Black, but all to no avail. If you could see to posting them here as a comment, to share with others, that would be great! Otherwise I will strive to overcome my technological shortcomings.

I am a creature of habit. I fell asleep most nights this week reading threads in Punt Road End. I must turn my gaze also to Yellow & Black. Am new to this sort of social media; enjoy the shared commentary.

Another gem, Dugald and thank you for the words about Tommy Hafey Club, and Tommy himself. My gran used to say, “These things are sent to try us”, and I would say, “what for”???? This slump in the team’s performance is getting everyone down, and it’s clear 2014 is not going to be a season of joy. Whether if the culture of the administrators plays out on the field, who knows. But you are right, administrators come and go, we supporters are permanent, and the Club should know that. Maybe we need some diversity in the admin side, it’s a pretty homogenous profile in there. At least we have Peggy, that’s a start.
I do enjoy the mantra “ask for forgiveness, not permission” and there’s always more than one way to skin a Tiger. If the Club aren’t open to your creations, carve your own path and they will in the end follow you and realise they were too inward-looking. Or by then they may have left anyway.
Cheers
Skip

Skip, really good point about the diversity within the club. And I’m a big fan also of Peggy (even though I’ve never met her – think I did see her speak at the Family Day). I think it’s wonderful we have a woman president, and bring on the day when this is no longer noteworthy. I have met plenty of beaut people at the club (especially a young bloke who works at the Superstore who told a wonderful story of his Greek family who live across from Punt Road and are all mad Richmond), but unfortunately I found many at the club wary of me. Maybe cos of my funny homemade T-shirt. The Tommy Hafey Club lunch was the best thing. It felt like family. It was the best time I’ve ever had at the club (apart from when I got to put my arm around Cotch for a photo, swoon).
You are a very generous Tiger woman.

I take your point about radio broadcasts of games as I was forced to listen to last week’s match per courtesy of the ABC (which unfortunately seems to suffer from having a perennially-biased Richmond person as one of their commentators) and, yes, it is easy to work and listen to radio rather than have the tv on.

Well, I couldn’t get the game on tv as it was not FTA – which seems to be yet another “downer” on AFL games played on a Saturday arvo. I am a self-confessed opponent of paid tv in that I refuse to pay to watch – a habit I think goes back to the days when we had to have a tv licence in this land of the free.

I did email you a transcript of what I wrote on the 19th. Did you not receive it? I fear it is too long to post as a reply here and is very dry.

Again, your latest contribution, “A lament for Richmond . . . ” makes for some very disturbing reading, as Chris replied, and points to what may, indeed, be a parlous situation in “our” club.

We’re all hurting. The promise of last year has inexplicably drifted over the horizon like a glorious sunset leaving us in the inky darkness of another lonely night. Our expectant wait for the next magical sunrise that has not yet arrived leaves us all unsure when the next warming rays of success will arrive.

If ever.

But I don’t think now is the time to rehash stories from the past or to question those who lead the Club.

Benny Gale is an admirable leader who has made an amazing contribution to the off-field redemption of his employer. But I think it unfair to question his commitment to the Richmond FC simply because he accepted the chance to test the waters for another (and certainly more prestigious ) position.

I am most sympathetic to the story of your treatment by the Club in rejecting your advances but I accept their authority to make decisions they believe in the best interests of the Club.

Just as we have to accept that the recruiting department has genuinely tried to recruit players of quality and skill.

Just as we have to accept the coaches and players have tried to implement changes to our game plan intended to improve our performance.

However, at this stage, it seems the Club has failed in all these areas to make the right choices.

But still, after reflecting on this weeks edition, I am concerned your piece simply mirrors the frustrations I have observed in so many Tiger supporters unable or unwilling to accept that we are still on a long and windy path to reclaiming the respect of the rest of the competition.

But in such dismal and despondent times, I just think we gotta hang tight.

I greatly enjoy reading your fascinatingly entertaining stories reflecting your abundant passion and commitment to the mighty Tigers. Being born in 1961 to a dedicated Tiger-supporting father, I am extremely fortunate that I was around for the successes of the “glory years”.

However, this fact also causes me much sadness knowing that I “encouraged” my kids into following me into the Tiger family – sadness cause they are yet to experience anything remotely like glory and success.

PJM, all good points, and true. Regarding Benny Gale, I was being a bit of a devil’s advocate. I have no reason to question what he has done for the club, and as mentioned, I would not deny him his personal ambition. But I’m also a sceptic. And I guess I wanted to use that point to highlight the folly of blind loyalty. It is healthy to question leadership, etc.

This was the theme I was trying to develop. What is the right path for us supporters to follow in times like this. I read a lot of venom of the fan forum sites, strangers email me with their personal lament, and it feels like we’re not too far from another chicken poo incident.

I admit I was angry on Saturday night, and despondent, and despairing. By voicing these opinions it somehow makes me feel better. But I have chosen this week – and in all coming weeks – not to criticise individual players. And I truly hope the coaching group pulls through this, and becomes stronger for it. I want this to be the making of Dimma.

I really like your perspective, that the recruiters and coaches and players are all trying their hardest and best. And I agree that we need to accept this, even if it does mean acknowledging mistakes.

I didn’t really want to air dirty laundry – the cause of a lingering disappointment – between the club and I, but thought to use this to illustrate the complex relationship a fan has with a club and their team. We love it. We are blind to it. It hurts us. It gives us great joy. It is cruel to us. But we cannot let it go.

The club is doing and has done many things right, but it also has the odd misstep.

But I could not imagine barracking for anyone else. It simply wouldn’t work.

Dugald, Thank you for your blog last year . I loved it . I am sorry that the club treated you so badly but I am not surprised. I emailed the club on many occasions and only received a reply when i commented on this on the AFLFA site. BTW I think we should all join.
On Mother’s day Gerard Whately interviewed mothers of young players and it was moving to hear them speak glowingly of the welcome they received from Port Adelaide in particular and it sounded like a very different ambience from that you experienced through the Chaplins.
keep up the good work
Go Tiges

Thanks Toni, although it was truly a joy to sit with the Chaplins last year. Lovely people. Writing it was one of my favourite stories. It was sort of nice because it was my way of introducing them to the club, introducing them to Richmond.

Funny thing is, if I had asked the club for permission – access to a players’ parents – they probably would have denied it. Yet it’s such a good way of building the idea of a family club. And Troy’s form slump this year, I know his parents (and wife) would be feeling it hard, and these are difficult times for them also, and yet they have to suffer in silence and presumably without the embrace of the club. It must be stressful for them also. I have given them plenty of thoughts over these past few weeks.

And yes, I fully support what the AFLFA have created. Think it’s great to have an advocate for a part of the game that makes it such a spectacle. Without the crowd, the game would be nothing.

Keep the faith!!! Yes it is hard yards!!! Great read. When I was young and my dad took me to watch the tiges (was never allowed to go to a game at Victoria park LOL) he always used to say to me how lucky I was to be supporting a team consistently at top of ladder as when he was young not the case. I could never believe it. These days it is soo dispondent to see my daughters face at the footy week after week of doom and gloom. So we keep the faith as tigers fans and wait…..for that day. Go tiges!!!!!

I was born into a Richmond supporting family. My entire family, pets included, have and will always be Richmond. Since I can remember I have been going to games, once upon a time with the number 33 on my back (now it’s the number 3), membership in my pocket and heart in my hands. I am part of the generation of Tigers supporters who has never seen success at Richmond. I was tormented in school when we were slumped at the bottom of the ladder. The other kids would colour wooden spoons in yellow and black and give them to me. I’ve always remained loyal to my club, through the ups and downs.

For some reason, this is hitting me the hardest. I feel like there is such a lack of heart at the club at the moment. Reading this blog made me sad. To know that your words, which echo the Tiger spirit, are not appreciated and are instead discouraged – well, that makes me feel transparent as a supporter. I’ve almost given up hope in our club. It doesn’t feel as warm as it once did, now it feels bitter and cold, as if the death of our immortal Tommy Hafey killed our spirit rather than ignited our passion. And to know that our support may not even be acknowledged is upsetting. My father has been a member for over 40 years and he recently sent his membership back to Punt Rd in the mail, staying he will renew it when he feels the club proves how much us fans are valued. Until then, he isn’t interested.

Thank you for your blog, I’ll spread it around twitter in hope that it will somehow get through to the head honchos!

Thanks Sophia, and thank you for contributing to the discussion. It upsets me to read these sort of comments. I don’t want our club to be like this. I actually want it to be more creative in the way it embraces its community. There are so many other things it could do to include fans in the way it operates. And my fear is that this ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality has trickled down to the players. The vision after the Melbourne game of the victorious Melbourne players being embraced by the fans over the fence, and participating in “selfie” photographs, made me sad. Granted, it was their best win in Melbourne for goodness knows how long, but I can’t imagine Richmond players embracing us so publicly like that. This is not meant at criticism of the playing group. Just a gentle illustration of a gulf that seems to have been created: of wariness, distance, reserve, then sometimes contempt.

I’ve been overwhelmed by private email messages of support. The abiding message is that players and coaches and admin staff all come and go: us fans are the only ones that remain truly loyal.

(although having met Mike Perry of the Richmond Past Players’ Association, there is no question that many past players still love the club, are fond of it, and would do almost anything to see it succeed).

53 years a supporter and lucky enough to see the 67, 69, 73 and 74 premierships. Missed 1980 as was overseas for work. So sad to hear of your treatment by a club that used to treat its supporters as the heart and soul of the club. It’s just another business now run by people who really don’t care and with players, for the most part, only looking for a quick buck. To me the death of Tommy was probably the final nail in the coffin. Watching the current players, with the exception of Jack, laughing it up at his funeral was sickening

Thanks Alan, I was unaware of how the players responded to the funeral. Really hope the powers-that-be read all these comments from fans. Reckon they might be indicative of a wider disaffection. Then again, it’s probably something that a few wins might paper over. Thank you for your contribution. Hope it might help the way our football club does business.

The last thing the club should be doing is alienating supporters considering what we’ve given to help them eradicate the debt in recent years. Employees come and go but Richmond is in our blood for ever.